Format

DOBES Archive

The speaker talks about how to kill and prepare a pig. Part of a traditional feast is to kill a pig. This usually takes place at sunrise. The pigs is hit on the head. Later its fur will be burnt off on the fire and the pig is cut into pieces on top of a plattform. In Rouku and the surrounding villages this is usually done by the speaker who has a lot of experience in doing this.
The recording was made with a video camera and the audio from the camera is of bad quality. There is no separate audio available because the microphone was broken and did not record.

Video of the next stage in making a grass skirt for Independence Day celebrations in Morehead.
In these videos the bark that was removed from the tree has been left out in the sun to dry for a couple of days. It is now being cleaned up and separated into strands to be woven.
Casual conversation between Wára and Arammba speakers.
Keywords: Procedural; Material Culture

Elicitation and discussion of kinship terms in Wára (Wära)
Recorded using the Zoom H4N with the AKGC520 head-mounted microphone.
The hm track isolates the speaker's audio, the zoom track captures the audio of others who are present.
The speaker comes from Yokwa and speaks Wára (Kómnzo is considered by Ethnologue to be a dialect of Wára (tci)). She has married a Kómntzo speaker and lives in Rouku.
Keywords: Elicitation; Kinship

Abia Mbäi takes Chris, Julia, and Christian to the savannah and river neaby Rouku Village to offer names and descriptions of birds. This walk occurred in the afternoon of the arrival of Chris and Julia to Rouku.
The Sennheiser EW112-P G3B wireless tranceiver/receicver with a lapel microphone was used along with the PMD661 Marantz recorder.
Keywords: Birds

This is a recording of a man who had been hunting during the night MAK with his two sons. He had caught a cuscus and a crocodile. After he returned in the morning, he send one of his sons to show me the cuscus and the crocodile.
recorded with a Canon XA10 with a shotgun mic Rode Videomic

This is a recording of gardening. The grass on the garden plot had been cut during the previous weeks. In the two videos Lucy Abia and Abia Bai are burning the grass.
recorded with a Canon G12 photocamera.

This is recording is part of visiting place around Rouku. These are places associated with the Mayawa section, Mérzér clan in particular. Daure Kaumb took me on a walk around Rouku and told a little story about each place.
The place is: séthékäs
GPS: S8 43.117 E141 36.741
recorded with a Sony HDR HC1 and the speaker was wearing a Marantz PMD 661 with a head-mounted AKG microphone. The audio was running for several hours and only later segmented.

This story was offered spontaneously by an old man from Mibini Tukau Kwaiak where I was visiting to record the only Kómnzo speaking family in the village. Tukau speaks in Namat, the language indigenous to Mibini. He agreed to share this story with other reseachers as I do not work in Namat. But he did not want it to be shared with Nama speakers from Morehead. It is my understanding that it contains an myth decribing how the ancestor came to Mibini and settled the land.
recorded with a Marantz PMD 661 and a Rode NT4 microphone and a Sony HDR HC-1 videocamera.

This is a version of nzürna trikasi witch story. These stories are commonly found in the Morehead Region. The speaker is a man who grew up in Wára speaking village, but has now returned to his father's original homeland. He is therefore apologetic about the fact that he mixes Komnzo and Wára or sometimes only speaks Wára. The two varieties are rather close from a scientific perspective, but small differences are hugely emblematic from the the local point of view.

Elicitation of the Crow and Jackal story. The speaker is prompted to switch tense for multiple tellings.
Video recorded, as well as separate audio using the AKG 520C head-mounted microphone.
Keywords: Crow and Jackal Story; Elicitation

This is set of recordings during a wedding feast in Rouku. The wedding took place between a woman of the Farem Sanḡara clan and a man of the Mérzér Mayawa clan. This was a pig feast, but it was a one-sided marriage as the groom's side did not give back a sister in exchange. Matters were further complicated by the fact that the bride was adopted actually both Sanḡara clans of Rouku were involved Farem and Mutherata Sanḡara. The groom/husband had been feeding a pig over the last 4-5 years for this event. All Mayawa families of both clans Mérzér and Mbani Mbani Mayawa contributed yams. In the week leading up to the event, both sides met and discussed how to distribute the pig. One half should go to the two Sanḡara clans and one half to the Mayawa clans. During the event the Mayawa side changed their plans and announced that will give the whole pig away. This is mostly the content of the recording tci20121019CDa-04.wav. The reason was that the Sanḡara side had invited far too many people.
All the video material was taken during daylight. It involves the Sanḡara side bringing out the dance, i.e. dancing and singing whilst moving towards the dancing square.
The audio mostly includes songs or discussions and public speeches that took place during and inbetween the dances.
tci20121019CDa-04.wav is a special genre called se zókwasi bark language whereby se is bark that is burnt to light up the dancing ground. generally during a dance participants split into either hosts or guest. the former are called se kambe bark people and the latter are wath kambe dance people. the roles are clear. hosts are expected to provide food, drinks, tobacco. guests are expected to enterain and dance through the night. at times of rest, anybody mostly respected people from the host side may pick up a piece of bark. with a piece of bark torch in their hand, a man would walk in circles around the dancing square and deliver a speech. he is usually followed by some younger men. se zókwasi is a genre during which one is allow to publically accuse others of outstanding debts or mistake which they have one in the past. se zókwasi is often delivered in a rage; sometimes even when intoxicated by coconut wine although not too much in this case.
in the file tci20121019CDa-04.WAV a respected older Mayawa man speaks first ABB, followed by the groom SIK and the groom's brother SKK. They explain to the Sanḡara side that the Mayawas are not willing to share the pig, but rather would like to give it all to the Sanḡara side.
video recorded with a Canon XA10 with a shotgun microphone (Rode Videomic)
audio recorded with Marantz PMD 661

this is nzürna trikasi. nzürna is a spirit woman witch that roams the forests. stories involving these nzürna women are a common kind of story. this particular story took place between Rouku and Morehead.

This is a set of recordings made in the village of Yokwa or Safés. Yokwa is about 10km to the West of Rouku. I was invited to Yokwa to witness a the opening of a communal yam storage house. This is part of a ritual which the anthropologist Mary Ayres has called finishing the memory. It involves the destruction of a grave house and the subsequent erection of a yam storage house on the same spot. The festivities of this day involved a number of different activities.
tci20131009-01: a couple if men describe to me what this event is about. The main speaker is Yofar Anau.
tci20131009-02: a story by Kimai Mbari
tci20131009-03: Railey Abia from Rouku and Ntami Kawar sort their share of the yams.
tci20131009-04: Ntami Kawar and Joseph Maiwar talks about what is happening. Joseph Maiwar shows me his share of yams and takes me on a tour through the inside of the yam house. The recording ends with a public announcement by Moronk Nḡwam.
tci20131009-05: Ntami Kawar is sorting his yams
tci20131009-06 - tci20131009-16: several shots of the yam storage house
tci20131009-12 & tci20131009-13: lunch is served
tci20131009-17-18: I am walking through the village with Ntami Kawar and Nḡwam Foyam to the grave house. It is the grave of Ntami Kawar's father. His name was Kawar Ntami and he passed away about 5 years prior.
tci20131009-19 - tci20131009-23: The grave house is taken apart. Almost all parts are burnt. The plants surrounding the grave are also cut down. The ground is flattened at the end.
tci20131009-22: Wärménḡ Maembu from Rouku describes to me that the old customs have changed: The grave will be marked with a concrete slab and the practice of building the yam storage house directly on top of the grave has been abandoned.
tci20131009-24: back at the yam storage house John Kawar presents his knife dance. John is a man who has been away from the Morehead District for many years. He worked in Bougainville as a welder and lived in Moresby for most of his life. I met him many times before in Rouku or in Morehead. He promised to show me his knife dance - a performance greatly anticipated by all the younger people.
tci20131009-25: Ntami Kawar describes the yam house and its cultural significance to me.
recorded with a Canon XA 10 with a mounted shotgun microphone Rode Videomic.

This is a recording of Abia Bai who talks about different topics.
tci20131013-01: This is a version of the founding myth at Kwafar from a Rouku, Mayawa perspective
tci20131013-02: Abia talks about the life of the old woman Ausi Mbanta who lives with them. She has become and orphan in the last headhunting raid in the region. She must be at least 90 years old.
tci20131013-03: Abia talks about the origin of sorcery
recorded with a Canon XA 10 with a mounted shotgun microphone Rode Videomic